So as we've noted here several times before, we hate the Nevermind boxed set. The "Deluxe" edition was released yesterday, which isn't THAT bad... Disc 1 includes Nevermind and all of the b-sides (but not "Endless Nameless"). Disc 2 includes the Smart Sessions (making "Polly" redundant since the version on Nevermind is from the Smart Sessions) and a bunch of "boombox demos" which nobody wants to hear.

In 4 weeks, the "Super Deluxe" 4-CD set is getting released.. Disc 3 includes the entire album mixed differently, and nothing more. Disc 4 is "Live at the Paramount" which VH1 and MTV2 have aired 4 times since Friday.

Out of frustration, we threatened to make our own boxed set. And over the past 45 minutes, it actually happened....

DISC TWO: Hormoaning & PocketwatchLook in the direction of Pavement to view the correct way to re-package albums with bonus tracks... When they re-issued Slanted & Enchanted, they made sure to start disc 2 with the Watery, Domestic EP.

For the exact same reason, wouldn't it be obvious as fuck to start Disc Two of a Nevermind boxed set with Hormoaning, the EP they released 4 months later? 3 of the songs are redundant with Incesticide, but it would still just be nice to have an official domestic release of this with the original tracklisting... A few months ago on Record Store Day, Hormoaning was released in the U.S. for the first time... On vinyl, with a run of 4000 copies.. released for no good reason other than people snatching up 20 copies and selling them for $45 each on eBay. Fucking sad.

We are also upset about With The Lights Out and the Nevermind boxed set devoting approximately zero minutes and zero seconds to the tape Dave Grohl recorded in the exact same studio, using the exact same equipment, during the exact same time Nevermind was being recorded. For this reason, it just makes sense to include it.

DISC THREE: Not-so-rare rarities (Nevermind-era mix)The Nevermind box includes "Curmudgeon" but not the rest of the Laundry Room sessions. This included some Grohl-solo demos, as well as "Return Of The Rat" and "Oh, The Guilt," two songs which had intentionally placed "coughing" and "ticks" removed by Courtney Love when they appeared on With The Lights Out. On our boxed set, they are included in their original versions.

This is the only part of this collection that we compiled ourselves... 15 songs. It also includes "Smells Like Teen Spirit" with Flea on trumpet, the version of "In Bloom" from the 1990 Sub Pop VHS, a really creepy version of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" recorded 2 months after Nevermind, the best version of "Beeswax" ever... 8 of these are the most noteworthy songs from Disc 2 of the Deluxe edition..

And that's the whole thing. Three discs. Live at the Paramount should have been separately released. BBC Sessions should have been separately released by now.

Friday, September 23, 2011

More 20-year-anniversary nostalgia crap... And we'll continue posting about it as long as it all remains interesting....

Once upon a time, somewhere around 2002/2003, I had strongly considered writing a book with the working title Axl Vs. Kurt, which mostly planned to chronicle the events and dozens of legendary stories that took place in Los Angeles at the 1992 VMA's, an evening of television that has fascinated me for years. In addition to using Howard Stern's Private Parts as one of the sources, I had planned on also using passages from Charles Cross' Heavier Than Heaven, detailing Nirvana's experience.

One section of this book describes the story of Kurt Cobain backstage, walking up to Eddie Vedder while Eric Clapton was on stage playing "Tears In Heaven," and they awkwardly slow-danced for a few minutes.

After years of assuming this story was simply legend and possibly never actually happened, it turns out that Cameron Crowe has somehow obtained filmed footage of this amazing moment, and he's placed it into Pearl Jam Twenty, his documentary showing the early history of Pearl Jam. We normally hate Cameron Crowe, and "a documentary on the history of Pearl Jam" is not normally a movie description that we'd consider exciting. However, this trailer, plus the slow-dancing sequence, is making it all seem legitimately badass... More than likely way better than something intended for fans-only...

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Apparently this month marks the 10 year anniversary of September 2001, and it also marks the 20 year anniversary of September 1991. That's some crazy ass shit.

While Sept '01 sure did have a shit-ton of amazing releases, it also marks the 10-year anniversary of the week that one of the worst songs in the history of recorded made it to #1. Of course I'm speaking of Ja Rule & Jennifer Lopez "I'm Real" .. one of those truly rare pieces of shit that cannot even be saved by 10 years of nostalgic hindsight.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Does this guy really have missing teeth? I remember seeing them at Radio104 fest and they encouraged all the people on the lawn section and in the cheap seats to run to towards the stage saying "You paid your fucking money, now come on up here!"

Trying to think back on what must have been the most revolutionary periods for pop music... It's been well over a decade since the last time a year or two-year period contained such a wealth of amazing records. And while there has yet to be a period of pop history when there were zero shitty records for a year straight, there have been times when both the mainstream and underground were simultaneously fresh-sounding.

Regarding true revolutions, this happened twice in the 90's: The first was the hugely eventful Pixies' era (89-91), which was followed soon afterwards by a second takeover of New York hiphop (93-94). The 80's experienced one truly amazing year with 1982, a year when record labels and Top 40 radio reacted to New Wave bands becoming marketable and more accessible than ever.

Keeping in mind that we're speaking of periods that contained an abundance of incredible music that is nearly impossible to keep up with... Let's face the facts.. These years have existed, and 2011 is hardly one of those. This is not a reaction to getting older and being like "kids these days..." This is the reality of our current situation. There is no modern equivalent to what's happening in the video posted below...

So anyway, the video makes 1979 seem like it must have been one of those revolutionary times... It's not nearly as common to witness a show like 20/20 featuring any modern day revolutions in pop music, probably because there's nothing remotely close to this type of excitement happening today...

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

One of the dudes from The Killers who isn't the singer has some Ric Ocasek sounding side-project thing... Oddly released on Epitaph, which may lead to a slot on Warped Tour if it hasn't already happened, or at the very least an inclusion on "Punk-O-Rama 17" or whatever number they're up to by now. Huge shocker: The production is identical to every Killers album.

I'm sure this is exactly what Kurt Cobain would have wanted... jesus...

EDIT (9/15/11) Seriously, why would anyone ever consider this a good idea? Wouldn't it make 8 billion times more sense to maybe put together a line-up of bands who play Nirvana covers for a day? That would actually be pretty awesome, depending on the bands... Or perhaps a line-up of bands who used to perform with Nirvana, or artists who influenced Nirvana who are still around, etc, etc... I feel as though either of those ideas probably would make dead Kurt Cobain pretty happy in his grave. And they would be infinitely less tedious than hearing the same song over and over again for an entire day, without question the worst idea for a concert we've probably ever heard.

Why can't anyone do anything remotely productive with Nirvana's legacy other than finding ways for people to use their music to suck their own dicks? I stand by what I've said throughout the past decade.. Nirvana has the fucking worst fans ever, 99% made up of people who just DONT GET IT. Phish-phans are the most obnoxious people ever, but at least they GET their favorite band! Or like fucking Jonas Brothers fans... Obnoxious annoying little 10-year-old girls... They GET IT more than Nirvana fans do!

Dude... fucking PINK FLOYD fans. What the fuck is wrong with these people? Hey guys, let's go paint some enormously huge murals of Dave Gilmour hovering over a bunch of dildos that resemble the album cover for "Wish You Were Here." And yet somehow, these people still GET IT more than Nirvana fans. Fuck Nirvana fans. Seriously.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

So the "Winamp" app on my Droid is prolly not gonna be used nearly as much since I started using Spotify, except for artists that are not yet available on Spotify which is prolly about 15% of what I now listen to, although that could increase at any time...

I'm sure the readers have been simply dying to know all about my "Top Played," which will be posted thusly and presently for resource purposes.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

A while back, "Try Again" made to somewhere around #95 on the NME's all-time Top 100 singles list. Shortly afterward, some ignoramus douchebag responded with the comment, "Hah they included Aaliyah because she's dead," a statement which may have simply been early-2000's trolling, but it was probably sincere, immediately raising flags regarding questionable judgement in musical taste.

After some careful consideration, we are prepared to claim "One In A Million" as probably the greatest song of all time. This is not a joke... This is serious ass business here. GREATEST SONG OF ALL TIME. Average visitors may recognize that we do not normally come right out and make outrageously drastic claims such as these very often. But this is the reality of the situation. It's the fucking greatest most magical sounding shit ever laid to DAT.

The late vocalist on the greatest-song-ever unfortunately received a less-than-spectacular memorial 10 years ago, with her death taking place so soon prior to September 11th. And then this year, her 10-year memorial has been similarly overshadowed by Hurricane Irene.

This afternoon we present something different... Timbaland and Ginuwine throwing some "Pony" burps into the mix... We're surprised this version isn't more popular.

what's it?

TASTE MY KIDS compiles recommendations for a happier and healthier existence, most often in the form of "best-of" lists, youtube posts, album or movie reviews, and various scribblings. We lived on Geocities starting in August 2000. In January 2009, times got tough and posts were on hiatus until a new host could be located. Geocities eventually died anyway, and now we live on blogspot. True story.